The Challenge of Getting Published: Necessary Elements of Every Journal Article

This article provides an analysis of the problems scholars face in publishing in higher quality, peer-reviewed English language journals and proposes specific solutions. It is based on observations made in numerous workshops and close one-on-one work with postgraduate students and academics primarily in Asia but also elsewhere. The article makes a contribution by making explicit understandings, values and practices that underpin academic publishing and describing and analyzing the six elements required by peer reviewed journals. Using a ‘scholarship of application’ the article begins with an explanation of the literature review and then the element of novelty or necessity of a new idea. It then turns to the six elements of research and writing in terms of theory, themes and narrative as the first three and then the last three: the requirement for description, analysis and evaluation. Finally, it provides a series of specific tips to help manage each of these elements.